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  • Montalè
  • Montalè
  •  
  • Italy
  • Sardinia
  • Province of Sassari
  • Sassari

Credits

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Monuments

Periods

  • No period data has been added yet

Chronology

  • 3300 BC - 2300 BC

Season

    • The pre-nuragic necropolis of Montalè is constituted by at least six rock-cut hypogea. Three were re-adapted as oil mills and their original plans are unrecognizable. Only a few traces of the fourth tomb were seen in the section of a modern quarry. In hypogea V and VI, the only ones preserving the original structure, cleaning and survey were undertaken in 1983 and an archaeological investigation took place in 2001. Tomb V has been named the Tomba delle Protomi Taurine as the antechamber A presented six taurine protome with rectangular elongated heads and large crescent-shaped horns, plus a seventh of which only the horns remain. At the centre of the antechamber was a dividing wall with a niche in its central part, suggesting that the tomb may have had a ritual space. From the three doorways which opened in the front and the sides of antechamber A, access was gained to seven cells in a radial arrangement. The hypogeum had been emptied of the ancient depositions and only a few sporadic pottery fragments, including one decorated with the typical Monte Claro grooves, were found in the antechamber. Tomb VI presented an entry corridor, an antechamber, a chamber with pillar and two residual lateral cells, whilst a third had been destroyed by quarrying and only its doorway remained. The residual deposit produced a few fragments of Monte Claro pottery. The architectural elements and the taurine protome recall similar examples in the necropolises of Monte d’Accoddi- Sassari and Anghelu Ruiu- Alghero and in Upper Neolithic contexts at Ozieri. The Monte Claro pottery attests the reuse of the Neolithic structures during the Copper Age.

Bibliography

  • No records have been specified